Bangladesh ex-PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to 5 years in graft case
Bangladesh ex-PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to 5 years in graft case: Supreme Court has sentenced former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to five years in jail in a 10-year-old graft case. In the same case, her son Tarique Rahman and four others have been sentenced to 10 years in jail. Among the others who are convicted a little while back in Dhaka are former BNP MP Quazi Salimul Haq Kamal, former principal secretary to the Prime Minister Kamal Uddin Siddique and two others including a businessman. Zia denied the charges earlier. The Anti-Corruption Commission filed a graft case about 10 years back, accusing Khaleda Zia and five others of misappropriating over 2.1 crores Bangladeshi Taka [₹1.6 Crore] that had come from a foreign bank as grants for orphans. There are more than 30 cases, including cases related to funding misappropriation, filed against Zia and other BNP leaders. She was Bangladesh’s Prime Minister in two terms — 1991-1996 and 2001-2006. Security is tightened in both Bangladesh and bordering areas of West Bengal anticipating violence. -PTC News
